Bring me to life
by Onkoona
Summary: Hikaru was born to be a figure skater, literally so. But is he the only one? (AU gen story) (This story is on a brief (I hope) hiatus. I'm working on a new ending, but it may be a few months in coming.)
1. Chapter 1

"Shindou-san, time to wake up! Ballet class starts in 15 minutes, prompt!"

6:15am and Fujiwara was knocking on Shindou Hikaru's dorm door, and all because Hikaru was known for arriving late for class. Couldn't they get that 15 year old boys needed their beauty sleep? Couldn't they get that Hikaru hated ballet? Especially at 6:15 in the morning?!

Just as Hikaru groaned and tried to roll over and go back to sleep, that blastedly cheerful Fujiwara rapped on his door again and called out, "You have five minutes to get dressed and five minutes to eat before they take it all away, better hurry!"

Damn that man! Hikaru could just see the annoying long-hair laughing behind Hikaru's, well, door, at the moment. _No, that's unfair,_ Hikaru thought to himself as he threw off the covers and swung his feet out of bed. He may have no idea what a fellow like Fujiwara was doing at the Ice Rink, other than work, but no one could accuse Fujiwara of any improper behavior of any kind, as infuriating as that was. How could anybody be that much of a goody two shoes all the time?

Fujiwara was an OK janitor, good at sweeping the halls, aisles and the ice. But usually people that worked at a major Ice Rink like the Tokyo Ice Palace had an ulterior motive to do so; they all wanted to skate. And here at the TIP that meant figure skating. Everybody associated with the day to day running on the TIP was either already in the figure skating in-crowd or they were wannabees. But not Fujiwara. Never had Hikaru seen the man on skates, not even those very few times when there was no one on the ice.

And the man wasn't even that accomplished as a janitor. The guy even had needed to call an electrician to change the light bulbs in the lobby, Hikaru had seen him do it! For one nasty moment he'd considered telling on the man, but since Fujiwara was such a nice guy, if a bit mousy, and the man would sneak Hikaru a snack when Hikaru had over slept and missed breakfast again, Hikaru had let it slide. No need mess a guy over even if you can. Maybe especially because you can.

As Hikaru shimmied out of his PJs and into his ballet gear, he pondered the TIP's management's choice of having Fujiwara be the deliverer of the early morning call. Hikaru was sure some his fellow skaters felt similarly put out at having to wake up at such an ungodly hour. Yet Fujiwara had not been murderously attacked by any one yet. So maybe he was the right man for the job after all.

As Hikaru gathered his sweater - it was early April and the place was bound to be chilly for the first few hours - Hikaru glanced at the clock: 6:27. Cripes! He was going to miss breakfast!

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Hikaru munched one half of the energy bar he'd found in his shoe-cubbyhole upstairs on his way to the ballet studio downstairs. As he skidded to a halt outside the studio, he stuffed the rest of the bar in the front pocket of his training bag and he tore off his outside shoes and slipped on his ballet shoes (the flat kind, not the pointy kind) and he tried to tip-toe into the studio as inconspicuously as he could.

"Shindou! You're late!" _Damn, busted again_.

"Sorry, Ogata-sensei," Hikaru said giving his ballet teacher a apologetically deep bow, and then turned to the almost full class to give a similar bow. The man merely harrumphed and Hikaru took that moment to move to his customary spot on the left hand _barre_ behind Waya.

"Take first position, relevé, plié. Relevé, plié," Ogata started tapping his cane to the beat of the piano music coming from the cassette deck and he was raising his free hand up at 'relevé' and bringing it down at 'plié'. The whole ensemble went up on their bent toes at 'relevé' and went down back on their full foot, bending their knees at 'plié'. Those on the left side of the room had their left hand on the _barre_ and were elegantly lifting their right in time with the movement. Those on the right, did the same, only mirrored. After doing the relevé and plié excerizie in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th foot positions, Ogata moved them on the other muscle loosening exercises of lifting legs front ways and back. More exercises followed. A couple of times throughout the 90 minute ballet workout, the lefties would cross over to become righties and the reverse, to make the training a balanced one.

As Hikaru got into the rhythm of the exercise he let his body follow the instructions and let his mind take a look around the room, without turning his head much; because A he didn't want to mess up his posture and B he didn't want Ogata to come over and chew him out for messing up his posture. That man was not below swinging that cane of his at his pupils' backs if he felt they needed it. Hikaru tried hard not to need it and mostly he had his body under control enough to satisfy even Ogata.

Hikaru spied Touya, Nase, Akari, Kaneko, Kishimoto and Ochi at the right hand _barre_ and, in the mirrored wall behind them, he could see Mitani, Tsutsui, Kaga, Hidaki, Isumi and Honda standing behind him at the left hand side. He also spied all the usual faces from the junior group. Those, together with the pair skaters Sakurano and Murakami, who were already in their twenties but were also training at the TIP, pretty much filled the studio to capacity.

As the instruction changed from the warming up to the more serious muscle lengthening and strengthening, Hikaru had caught the eyes of his most of his friends and had so exchanged morning greetings. He had looked over at Touya, as he did every morning, but, the same as every morning, the boy was keeping his eyes firmly front and on Ogata's instructions, not letting anything or anyone distract him.

_'Snooty'_, was what Hikaru though of Touya that day. It was one of his more mild assessments of his rival. Some days it was '_stuck up prick' _or '_Ice Prince'_, and some days it was a phrase Hikaru would never say out loud. But today Hikaru was in a good mood and so it was '_snooty' _and nothing more dire than that.

The whole ballet thing had been Touya's fault anyway. Or at least Hikaru saw it that way. Of course it had been Hikaru's mom that had made him take figure skating lessons from the moment Hikaru could stand up. His mom had found out she was pregnant with him when she was at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998, in her home town, watching the figure skating, and she had gotten it in her head that her child was to become a Olympic Skating medal contender. So, Hikaru had been 'condemned' to be a figure skater even before his birth.

But what had solidified it for Hikaru was when he's been 8 years old he'd met Touya Akira, the then also 8 year old son of Olympic Bronze Medalist Touya Kouyo (Saporro, 1972).

It had been a chance meeting; Hikaru had been taking his usual after school private skating lesson at the White Ring in his native Nagano, when the other half of the ice was claimed by the visiting Touyas.

For 45 minutes the boys skated, one on one side of the rink and the other on the other side. Until that day Hikaru had thought he was really very good at figure skating but seeing Touya skate, he realized his mistake; Touya was leagues better. Hikaru realized too that he'd been slacking for the last year or so, thinking he could afford the break since he still out-skated everyone in Nagano, younger or older.

Figure skating hadn't really been Hikaru's choice before this point. It had been something he did that made his mom happy and wasn't as boring or annoying as going to school. And he liked the physical aspect of it, but really, skating or running (which he also did at school in the relay team), it was all the same to him until that day.

But now he could see where skating could go, because the Touyas were famous and Hikaru was sure Touya Akira was going to be the junior champion next year. Champion of all Japan, imagine that! The value of the possibility of the Yokumada elementary school relay team winning the Nagano prefecture gold medal seemed to pale by comparison. Hikaru suddenly found _he_ wanted to be the champion himself, very very much.

Of course the fact that the Touya boy had had his nose in the air the entire time he'd been on the ice, as tough the White Rink's ice was too common for His Majesty, had made Hikaru want to kick the boy's butt all the more. That evening when he got home he told his mom he wanted a proper coach, and not Mr. Yamada who also coached the ice hokey team, and a proper 'training regime'. (That's what one of the present skating mothers had said; you need a dedicated coach and a training regime.)

And that's how Hikaru ended up at the TIP in Tokyo living in dorms for the past 5 years, going to the TIP's own mini junior high, getting a training regime that included ballet - arg - and having to share a dedicated figure skating coach with seven other skaters.

Coach Morishita was a tough teacher, but because of that Hikaru had made good progress. The man had taken him to the silver position in the Junior Championships three times already, with Touya taking the gold every time. But then, Touya had his father as a full time coach and Ogata as a second coach, no wonder he did well! On the other hand, Hikaru had never seen Touya on his own; his dad and Ogata were always with him and he'd never seen his rival have any fun at all, ever. Where Hikaru went for ice cream with his friends, Isumi and Waya, and would kick a ball around the grassy patch behind the Rink and inside the fence with all his friends, Touya was either on the ice practising or off the ice practising or in school or asleep in bed. The poor guy had no life at all.

Hikaru's life was still very structured even if not in anyway as rigid as Touya's. On weekdays, after ballet, Hikaru went to school between on-ice practice and off-ice practice. For his on-ice hour he was coached by Coach Morishita and for the off-ice hour Vice-Coach Kawai helped him train. After school there was the change to earn a little pocket money and a lot of experience giving skating classes to the wannabe skater kids. Hikaru had a couple of classes full of grade school kids, all in the their second year serious training. On the weekends, after ballet class both Saturday and Sunday morning, there was no school of course and there were more kids' classes to teach. Hikaru only taught one on Saturday; he wanted Sunday for himself and his friends.

Occasionally his mother came to Tokyo for Sunday lunch from Nagano. Occasionally Hikaru took the late afternoon train to Nagano on Saturday and stayed the night with his family and arrived back at the TIP late Sunday evening so he's be fresh for ballet class in the morning. He had been warned not to skip class more than once a month or he'd start to slip. Very early on in Hikaru's skating career he had realized that love it or loathe it; ballet was a necessary evil that must be lived with if he wanted to beat Touya at his own game.

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Like on every Tuesday, after ballet class and a change of clothes and a snack break, it was sitting down for a math lesson for an hour before Hikaru had to change again to go to his individual on ice training with Coach Morishita.

Just as Hikaru rounded the corner and stepped into the hall where the ice rink stood, from behind the Zamboni that was still sweeping the ice, he spied his Coach over on the other side, talking to the TIP's grand director, Mr. Kuwabara. The roar of the Zamboni's diesel engine obstructed any snippets of conversation Hikaru might otherwise have heard, but he could see that his coach was talking animatedly with the director, who, as always, stayed perfectly calm. Than guy would still be calm even if he saw a tsunami coming straight at him, Hikaru was sure of it.

As Hikaru leaned on the padded boarding he decided to give the pair their privacy, also because there would be no skating until the large mopping machine had left the ice. _C'mon, Fujiwara, finish up already; I wanna skate!_

Presently the Zamboni moved to the large opening in the boarding on the other side of the rink, gliding through it and onto the walkway that surrounded the rink. Hikaru watched as Fujiwara annoyingly slowly climbed out of the driver's seat and set about closing up and locking down the open gap, making the rink safe to skate in.

Hikaru opened one of the smaller doors in the boarding, one near where he had been standing and after removing the blade protectors from his skates with a practiced move, he stepped out on to the ice and skated diagonally over to his coach to report for 'duty'. Just before he arrived at the other side, Mr. Kuwabara nodded a curt goodbye to Coach Morishita and gave Hikaru a very tight nod, before walking off.

"Blast that man," Coach grumbled, once Mr. Kuwabara was out of earshot. "He's just too cheap to get some extra help in; that Fujiwara is just not cutting it on his own!"

Hikaru could only shrug; he had enough on his plate just keeping up with his own training goals, and his interest in ice rink management was close to absolute zero. He was just relieved that the earlier conversation between the older man hadn't been about his progress or something. Being the topic of conversation when Mr. Kuwabara was around was known to be a very bad thing. At least it was for skaters; Hikaru hoped it would go better for general personnel...

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The on-ice training went well; only the usual amount of ranting from the coach about bad posture, lack of jump rotation and an over abundance of lousy landings came Hikaru's way and Hikaru got the feeling Morishita was thinking Hikaru was coming along nicely. _Here's hoping anyway. _

He quickly changed his skates back for shoes and changed his sweaty T for a dry one in the locker room adjacent to the rink, almost tripping over Fujiwara who was just putting his mop and bucket-on-wheels aside, in order to get the Zamboni out again to clean the ice before Touya's training session.

Hikaru skidded out of the way, through the side door and and then jogged all the way back to the school room to arrive in time for history class. _From a skater's high to the boring politics of the Heian period in 30 seconds flat, oh brother!_

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Lunch that day was a lot of fun. Isumi, Waya, Nase, Kaneko and Hikaru had all taken their bentos outside into the nice April midday sun and, after having wolfed down the food, there had been time for a quick soccer match with Team Waya-Kaneko vs. Team Hikaru-Isumi, since Nase was still recovering from her sprained foot. Team Hikaru-Isumi won by one goal point.

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The afternoon started off with geography class; something about volcanos and the tsunamis they can cause. It wasn't too boring but Hikaru really had his mind on the upcoming off-ice practice hour. Sub-coach Kawai had promised they'd work on perfecting the landing on Hikaru's quadruple Lutz; something that the young skater was going need desperately if he was even going to over take Touya once they'd both were old enough to join the seniors next season.

_Next season I'll be in the big leagues, _Hikaru kept thinking. _And I'll need to land at least one perfect quad-trip-trip in my short program and again in my free program and then I'll have to pray Touya messes up some where and doesn't achieve his full marks, and... But Touya never messes up, he's mister perfect robo-skater; the same icy perfection every single fucking time. _Hikaru's head hit the table with a thud, startling his fellow students.

"Eh, sorry," Hikaru said sheepishly, scratching his neck with one hand and quickly leafing through his geography book with the other, trying to find the matching pages to the information the teacher had spent the last ten minutes chalking up on the board. At last he found his place and was promptly invited to read the next bit aloud.

_Damn Touya and his infuriatingly immaculate skating technique_.

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Working with Kawai always was a breath of fresh air. The guy's good humor was indestructible and he was not one to be subtle about anything. If you did well, he'd tell you straight out and if you sucked he'd tell you that too. As a lot of the figure skaters Hikaru knew had prima-donna type personalities, it was clear why Kawai was available so much of the time to work with Hikaru and his friends, all of whom could give as good as they got. People like Touya or Kishimoto or Sakurano and Murakami out right refused to work with Kawai; they thought him too course_. Stupid uppity idiots_, was what Hikaru thought_, Kawai's just an honest guy, if a bit of a loud mouth. Nothing wrong with that! _

Hikaru's training went so well, he was almost skipping down the hallways on the way back to class, English class, whistling all the way, almost colliding with Fujiwara and his ever present mop-mobile.

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Since Hikaru, and a good number or the other full-time skaters, lived at the TIP, he took his meals there too. Dinner was the most social of these meals, with all his friends at one table (and Touya, his 'enemy', and his entourage at another) having a great time together.

After dinner there was time for homework, TV and socializing. Hikaru usually hung out with his friends in favor of doing his homework, also because they'd often go to the basement gym to workout and Hikaru felt he could chalk that time as working towards his goal of becoming champion; knowing English or geography sure as hell wouldn't help him get there...

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Bed time was 9:30, with lights out at 10. With the exception of Saturday nights, when curfew was later, depending on the person's age; Hikaru had to be home by 11. But on Tuesdays it was 9:30 just like any week day.

Usually Hikaru would be so tuckered out from the day's activities that he'd be asleep the moment his head hit the pillow and he wouldn't rejoin the world until his alarm clock, and Fujiwara, would jolt him awake. But that night it was different. That night he woke up at 3:30 am with his stomach telling him in no uncertain terms that it was HUNGRY and it wanted FOOD (or sweets, vanilla milk shake, whatever).

For about 20 minutes, Hikaru tried to go back to sleep, but his belly wouldn't stop growling and he found that he really really wanted one of those thick chocolate bars from the vending machine on the upper tier of the rink hall. So that's how he ended up putting on a bathrobe over his PJs, and thick socks on his feet - it was freezing - before slipping on his shoes and as silently as possible tip-toeing out of the dorm, through the lounge, and straight on to spectators' walkway. There on the wall between in the dark, almost behind the bleachers right next to the door he'd entered the space through, was the vending machine. Hikaru homed in on the chocolate bar that was sitting second row from the top, two from the left; the biggest one there that had both crunch and nuts. He wanted it, so badly. He reached into his pocket and, _oh crap, forgot to bring money. Stupid!_

Hikaru was just about to turn around and head back to the dorm to get some cash when there was a noise. He stood stock still, thinking he'd been caught and how it was against dorm rules to be wandering around at night, when he realized the noise was actually echoing music. Music coming from below, where the rink was.

Hikaru recognized the song at once; it was _Bring Me To Life_, one of his favorites. If there was music coming down from below, some one was down there breaking curfew, just like Hikaru_. I should just go before I really do get caught_, he thought, but instead of turning around and leaving the way he'd come, he found himself inching forward to the tier's rail, so he could look over and satisfy his burning curiosity.

The ice was lit as always, even at night it was bathed in the stark white safety lights. As Hikaru carefully looked down he had a complete view of the ice, because of the lights, but nothing beyond. He hoped the fact that all the lights on the upper tier were off for the night, would keep him from being seen. But the moment he spotted the movement upon the ice, all thoughts of safety left his mind: some one was performing a spin in time with the music and is was beautiful.

Doing great spins had always given Hikaru trouble. To be fair, it gave most of the boys trouble because it required an elegance most males just don't possess. And a limberness too, but that could, for a good part, trained; innate gracefulness could not and this skater had it, in spades.

All Hikaru could see was that the skater was indeed male, but not who he was while he was still spinning. And the person kept on spinning, changing over position several times, changing from foot to foot, showing off the most beautiful spin skills Hikaru had ever seen. And the skater spun fast too, which is also not easy.

Then Hikaru saw the person's stance chance and he could tell the spin would be over after a few more revolutions. The man pulled in his arms close to his chest and he spun even faster than he had before, all of a sudden digging in the point of the skate on the foot he hadn't been spinning on into the ice to stop himself dead. The man ended with his back to Hikaru but now that he was standing still, and then started gliding off to the side, Hikaru recognized the mystery skater at once; it was Fujiwara.

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	2. Chapter 2

_(I'll be updating every week or so)_

Chapter 2.

Hikaru's jaw dropped; below him on the ice, the TIPs own mousy janitor, who'd never even been seen walking on the ice much less on actual skates, after doing the longest and most perfect spin Hikaru had ever seen, blithely skated off, doing all the prep moves for an Axle jump, and then doing a perfect double Ax, nice and high, with a perfect landing, all calm as you please.

After the jump, Fujiwara started on a slow skate around the rink, catching his breath while preventing himself from getting cold, much like any pro skater did in practice. Just as he turned in a slow arc, now turning his face towards Hikaru's side of the area, Hikaru quickly ducked down to prevent Fujiwara from spotting him, almost as a reflex. And unnecessarily as it turned out, because the skating janitor didn't seem to notice Hikaru at all; he was already concentrating on prepping for another jump. He was gliding backwards, checked over his shoulder that he had enough room. He moved all his weight onto the left leg, skating on the outside edge of his skate_. Oh, it's gonna be a Lutz. _Fujiwara swung his right arm and leg back and jumped from his left leg, spinning one revolution, two, before swinging his left leg wide and landing on his right foot._ Another beautiful jump! Too bad it was only a double,_ Hikaru thought.

While Hikaru was still thinking about that Lutz, Fujiwara was skating another aimless round, shaking his left leg and his arms to take the tension off them. And to keep warm, Hikaru surmised. Even with thick socks, shoes and the thick bathrobe over his PJs, Hikaru was feeling the cold and he usually was feeling too hot everywhere. Fujiwara was wearing lose jogging pants and a long sleeved T, his hair caught in his usual style of a plait falling down his back, stopping at his waist. Dressed like that and how skinny the man was, he must have been cold right then, Hikaru guessed. Hikaru could even see the man's breath in the cold night air.

Cold or not, Hikaru could tell Fujiwara was ready to do another element. _Make it another spin, _Hikaru pleaded in his head. _That spin earlier was the best! _The music changed into a song Hikaru also knew, just not as well as the previous one; _Running Up That Hill,_ great for spins.

Fujiwara started skating backwards again, gaining speed, twice around the rink and Hikaru found his silent wish fulfilled; the man took all the gathered momentum in to a step-jump, and after landing he transformed the raw power into effective spinning speed.

First, while spinning on the flat of his right skate, he leaned over and pressed his nose to the knee of his stretched right leg, letting the left leg and arm spin out elegantly at an angle. Then he pulled the arm and leg in and squatted on his right leg, ass close to heel, stretching his left leg out along the right thigh, but sticking the left foot out altogether. One hand stayed down close to the body, his hand on his knee right. But the other hand, and arm, he's raised elegantly above his head, completing the balance of the position in the spin.

He then got up from the position, having lost very little of his spinning speed, stood up, with the left skate next to the right, but a little up so it wasn't touching the ice. As he spun he pulled up his arms and then his left leg, which he swung behind him, and, _oh, my god, _he caught the heel of the skating blade with his left hand pulling the leg up and almost over his head and then he curved his body into the position, getting the leg in place for a perfect Biellmann position. Hikaru found he couldn't breathe; _a Biellmann and over the left leg too!_

Fujiwara spun his Biellmann for many revolution, but Hikaru could tell the man had enough momentum left for at least one more position, so he waited with baited breath what would come next.

Finally Fujiwara let go of his left skate and he swung his left leg out one revolution before bringing the leg down so he could step over on it and, taking the momentum with him successfully, it looked there would be more spinning. Hikaru almost clapped his hands with excitement.

The first position on the left leg was an 'easy' one. Easy yes, but no less gracefully executed. Fujiwara just angled his body perpendicular to the floor, head and torso looking out one way, right leg the other with his arms spread out wide like a airplane. A spread out position like that always seems to slow the spin, but Hikaru knew that that was just an illusion as Fujiwara's next position proved. He brought his nose down to his left knee, sticking up the right leg, so as to form a vertical split. He wrapped his arms around his supporting leg and the spin speed up again, making Hikaru's pulse race in sympatric excitement.

Fujiwara didn't spin this position for very long, and Hikaru knew exactly why. _Saving power for one more, hopefully, _Hikaru thought. And Fujiwara must have thought much the same because he changed position again to...

And Hikaru realized later that he'd seen it coming before it actually happened and his heart froze as he couldn't look away as Fujiwara's left leg gave a tremor, then a wobble and then it collapsed under him, making him crash to the ice on his side with a thud and a skid.

In ice skating there are always falls. But there are fall that you walk away from unharmed with only a few painful bruises to show for it and there are fall like the one Hikaru just saw; the ones that cause injury. That left leg had buckled in such a way that it had to be severely sprained at best, but most probably there were torn tendons, if not an actual break.

As soon as Hikaru's brain had registered the horror of the accident, and forgetting about not getting caught, he started running along the balustrade towards the stairs, in order to give aid, if he could. Just before leaving the tier for the stairs, Hikaru took one last glance over the rail at the scene below. A glace that stopped him in his tracks, just because his mind couldn't quite grasp what he was it was he was seeing.

Fujiwara was sitting on his butt on the ice, his right leg stretched out in front of him, the heel of his right boot and back of his skating blade digging into the ice, all quite normal. But what wasn't normal was the man's left leg; it looked bent and the foot was twisted in a way no foot could be and still be attached to a uninjured human being. But Fujiwara wasn't wailing in pain, no, not at all, instead he looked to be calmly unsnapping the snaps that ran up his jogging pants, patiently revealing the twisted limb, while the music started on the crescendo of the song. It was surreal.

And then Hikaru nearly tripped without even having been in motion when he saw Fujiwara seemingly detach his own leg. No. The man was _actually_ detaching his leg from just below the knee and, after putting it aside, the man started unpeeling a skin colored cloth from the end of his leg where the detached part had been attached.

Hikaru found he couldn't have looked away from the scene to safe his life. He stared as Fujiwara exposed the stump of his leg, retrieved a small jar from his pants pocket, opened it, took out some white cream and carefully applied it to the odd looking limb. After watching this for a while, Hikaru's gaze moved to the detached leg, which he now realized was a prosthetic limb, with a cup like shape with straps at one end and men's skate boot, complete with blade, at the other. In between was about 10 centimeters of steel bar connecting the two; no shin, no calf, or leg shape at all, just a bar about 3 centimeters in diameter. It was both horrific and fascinating. Horrific because of implication of the loss of a part of a living human being, but fascinating because of thought of how Fujiwara could even skate, much less skate well, do jumps and_, oh my god_, do those super spins! Hikaru's mind boggled as he continued to watch.

The music had moved on to Cloudbusting when Fujiwara finally finished with his leg and snapped his pants leg closed without reattaching his leg. He stuffed the unoccupied part of his pants leg in a space between the snaps on that same leg - to stop it from dragging, Hikaru guessed - and, grabbing up his prosthesis, stuffing it under an arm, he used both arms to level himself up on his one good skate and into a crouched position. Then he used the blade on the prosthesis to push himself forward towards a chair Hikaru hadn't noticed stood in the opened doorway in the padded boarding.

Once Fujiwara arrived at the chair, he maneuvered himself onto it and he put the prosthesis on the top of the boarding, between a black duffel and a small boom box. Hikaru watched on as he proceeded to take his other skate off. Or that is what Hikaru expected but again his jaw was forced to drop; Fujiwara opened up his right pants leg to the knee and stated loosening straps on the outside of his leg and a moment later that leg came off too. The man put his right leg prosthesis with his left on top of the boarding and then turned back to his right leg, which he stretched out but he didn't unpeel like his other leg instead he rubbed his hands all over the stump much the same way Hikaru would run his hands over his tired calves after training.

Hikaru couldn't stop staring at the scene. Two prosthetics, two amputated legs, the image wouldn't leave him alone. But still there had been those beautiful high level spins. And even the jumps, only doubles, but of a majestic grace that had nothing to do with making a higher amount of rotations. All of it had been of a world ranking level, that Hikaru knew he could only be dreaming of to attaining. And attain it was what Hikaru wanted; with all the fire in his soul he wanted to be that good, that sublime. To beat Touya at his own game, well of course, but that was only part of it. Hikaru wanted to see the audience see this much talent in him. In anyone, really; it was too beautiful to hide away. He wanted...

But in the mean time, Fujiwara had continued clearing up, blissfully unaware he was being watched. And Hikaru was called back to the scene when the man clicked off the boom box before the next track could start. Fujiwara had put on a prosthesis with his regular tennis shoe - Hikaru had wondered in the past that their janitor had always worn the same light shoes, inside or out, summer and winter - which the man had pulled out of his duffel. He'd then cleaned and oiled the blades on the prosthetic skates, before putting protectors on them and putting them and the mini boom box into the duffel after pulling out what appeared a bundle of sticks and a faded purple sweater that he then put on. He started work on the bundle and in no time it turned into a set of crutches, which he put on the other side of the boarding from the ice, right next to the door. Hikaru watched as Fujiwara stood up on his one leg which he'd put on the concrete floor outside of the rink, using the boarding in front of him and the chair behind him to attain a vertical position. The man then slipped his arms into the duffel handles, making it into an awkward looking back pack, he took the crutches, which he slipped on like a pair of funky bracelets, he gripped the hand grip of one, leaning on that one as he grabbed the chair by its back and placed it outside the rink, before gripping the other crutch's grip and starting to walk off in that odd hop-step gait that people on crutches have.

**TBC**

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_Author's notes:_

_Before you go all ape on me and tell me figure skating on prosthetic legs is just not possible, let me assure you that it is. Modern prosthetic limbs are wonderful, and I've checked with a healthcare pro about the possibilities. My first idea for this story was only one prosthetic leg, but I'm assured two is just as possible, and maybe even better because the body is more balanced._

_As to how Fujiwara got to be in this spot, for that you'll just have to read on._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

For the rest of that night Hikaru just couldn't sleep. He lay awake, looking at the cracks in the ceiling's plaster work, thinking about those awful crutches and those amazing spins.

When morning came a few hours after he'd gone to bed, Hikaru still hadn't decided what, if anything, he should do. So instead he got up at 6:05 am and was already dressed and ready to go by the time Fujiwara knocked on his door the first time (Fujiwara would usually come 'round twice).

"Shindou-san, time to wake up! Ballet class starts in 15 minutes, prompt!" came the man's normal sounding voice_. I wonder if he's affected at all from last night. He should be limping at least_, Hikaru thought.

Hikaru didn't bother to verbally answer the knock on the door, instead he just opened it and stepped out. Down to corridor he spotted Fujiwara, pushing his mop mobile out in front of him, moving to Waya's door, knocking on it and repeating his morning call. He received a load grunt for an answer and Hikaru saw Fujiwara smile at the closed door, shaking his head a little.

Then Fujiwara looked back over to where Hikaru stood and gave him a surprised smile. "Good morning, Shindou-san, how wonderful to see you up so early. Today you will be in time for breakfast for sure," Fujiwara said and gave Hikaru a very polite bow_._

_Imagine that; a person who can spin like that, bowing to me. I should be bowing to him and deeply too_, Hikaru though. But he didn't, he bowed just the same as he had always done to the TIPs janitor; a nod of the head more than a bow. But Fujiwara seemed to be very happy with this small acknowledgement of his own existence, for he smiled and nodded before turning around and pushing his rolling mop towards Isumi's door down the hall.

Hikaru stood for some moments more, trying to see if the man limped at all after last night's mishap but there was no indication of anything being wrong with him, not even the way he walked was in any way strange. And for a dark moment Hikaru imagined it had all been some weird sugar deficiency induced dream; the great skating and the removable legs, all of it.

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All through breakfast and ballet class Hikaru was still undecided what to do. Heck, he was even undecided about what his option for action were! He could maybe tell some one. But what would that do? Maybe they'd give Hikaru dorm penalty points for being up and about so late (too many of those and certain privileges like TV and internet would be taken away, and there were precious few of those as it was). Maybe Fujiwara would get into trouble for using the ice at night. Or he could even get fired for the same thing. And everybody would know the man's secret, which he'd probably not like, since he was keeping it a secret though Hikaru didn't quite get why. Or maybe Hikaru did get it; people weren't always very nice to handicapped people, were they? _Oh, god_, Hikaru thought_, I hadn't even realized the leg thing instantly labels Fujiwara as 'handicapped'! _Hikaru could well imagine hating having a label like that put on oneself; like you're a useless broken toy. The thought of it made him shudder.

So telling some one else was out, and really Hikaru found he wanted answers himself, not those that came filtered through other people; no, Hikaru found he wanted to talk to Fujiwara himself.

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Hikaru tried to find the TIP's janitor right after ballet class. But the guy, who Hikaru would run into many times during an ordinary day, proved to be totally illusive that morning and Hikaru was forced to go on to the school room for calculus class.

After calculus it was time for Hikaru's on-ice lesson of the day and when he arrived at the rink, he spotted Fujiwara sitting on the seat of the Zamboni, cleaning the ice. Even if Hikaru would have chosen the rink as the venue for the talk he had planned, the noise from the Zamboni's diesel engine made all communications impossible. And after the Zamboni was done, Coach Morishita demanded Hikaru's full attention for the rest of the hour.

Hikaru's practice was not too bad, even though he got yelled at (and with reason) for being distracted a couple of times. The Coach made him practice his jumps, Luts and Toe Loop. Secretly Hikaru was glad the man wasn't calling for spins; after last night's perfect examples Hikaru was feeling a little inapt in that field by comparison.

The moment Hikaru finished his training, Fujiwara was starting up the Zamboni to clean the ice for the next skater's practice, and again, Hikaru didn't get his chance to talk to the man.

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So Hikaru decided to risk turning up late to the practical demo planned for biology class in favor doing some research of his own; he hit the records room. After all, a person as skilled as Fujiwara was didn't just come out of nowhere.

First he used the PC that was connected to the internet, that was sitting in one corner of the cramped room. He found he was forced to look up 'Fujiwara' and 'figure skating' first, just because he had no idea where to start. What he found was the Fujiwara &amp; Fujiwara pair skaters, contestants in the 1994 Winter Olympics, but without making it to medals. There seemed to be no other internationally known Fujiwara out there, so Hikaru followed this lead to a wiki page about the pair, where he found nothing but sadness. The pair had been killed in a horrible car accident just before they were due to take part in the Nagano games in 1998, the year Hikaru himself had been born.

And, Hikaru found, they'd had their 12 year old son in the back of the car too_. An entire family wiped out, just like that, horrible_, Hikaru thought. But then he noticed the name of the boy, Fujiwara Sai, was underlined, indicating that the boy had his own page. Not quite knowing what to think of that, Hikaru clicked the link and an new page opened in the monitor's window.

_Fujiwara, Sai, born june 6th 1985, Kyoto Japan._

_Fujiwara Sai is the only son of Fujiwara Yukio and Fujiwara Mao, the famous pair figure skaters that tragically died in a car accident in December of 1997. Fujiwara was in the car when the accident happened and was injured in such a manner that his own promising career as an individual skater was terminated before it even got started._

The page then continued listing a few results of junior tournaments Fujiwara had taken part in at age 11. The stats showed a steeply upward climbing trend, showing that, but for the accident, Fujiwara would have gone very far indeed.

Hikaru closed the browser window and shut off the monitor. With an icy feeling he realized he should have realized that something really bad would have to have happened to the man to end up without his legs. It was just horrible, and the idea started to depress Hikaru no end.

But, he realized, Fujiwara didn't seem to be very depressed about it, no at all, in fact, he was cheerful every day and was always genuinely nice to every body, even if people largely ignored him. Like all the skaters did. Like Hikaru did_. Oh, gag._

_Change of subject, _Hikaru told himself. _If Fujiwara was once a young skater in the tournaments, then there must be some tapes here, _he thought and he jumped up out of his chair and went straight for the index cards of the TIP's video collection.

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Hikaru switched off the TV, got the video out of the machine, put it back in it's sleeve and put the whole thing back on the low shelve he'd found it on.

Watching a very young Fujiwara had been fascinating. Even at age 11 Hikaru could see the skater the boy would become someday. Or would have become if not for the... Well, it was all food for thought anyway; how ephemeral life can be, how your world could change in only one horrible moment. Again Hikaru couldn't help but shudder at the thought.

Hikaru now wanted to speak to the man more than ever, and he was starting to form a good idea of what he wanted to say to him.

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It wasn't until Hikaru was coming out of the men's room after lunch that he found himself pretty much alone in the upstairs hallway, with Fujiwara quietly mopping the floor of the boy's dormitory corridor, with his back turned towards Hikaru. The man was actually standing quite close to the door Hikaru's own room.

_Now or never, _Hikaru thought and he moved closer with large steps, as though not to give the man a chance to escape. Just as Hikaru reached the man, Fujiwara looked over his shoulder at Hikaru. He smiled his usual smile and asked, "Anything I can do for you, Shindou-san?"

Hikaru had to think quickly of something that would get them alone. "Uhm, I spilled my coke this morning and..."

"I'll get to it when I do the rooms, don't fret, Shindou-san," Fujiwara said.

_Arg, that's not working. Try again_. "Uhm, and my window is stuck and it's getting stuffy in there, what with the sun shining in, could you come in and fix it for me now?" Hikaru knew he was whining, but he figured Fujiwara was used to his share of prima-donnas whining at him.

Fujiwara held his smile as he put his mop in his rolling bucket and said, "But of course, Shindou-san." He pushed the mop mobile against the wall next to the door as Hikaru keyed it open. Hikaru let the man into the room before stepping in himself. He then closed the door behind him and moved back so his back was against the door, effectively cutting off the only real escape route.

"Which window is it..." Fujiwara said cheerfully before trailing off. Not surprising; all of Hikaru's windows were partially open, as he always left them for the day, no matter the weather.

Fujiwara turned around and he must have grasped what Hikaru's position at the door meant because he asked: "What is the meaning of this? Why have you asked me here?"

Hikaru bit his lip, this was it, either he'd get answers or there was going to be a fight; Fujiwara had lost that ever present smile of his. _Straight in at the deep end, _Hikaru thought.

"I saw you last night," he said and he watched as Fujiwara paled instantly. _So I was correct about him not wanting people to know_, Hikaru thought.

Fujiwara stumbled backwards and sat on Hikaru's bed with a padded thud. He looked up at Hikaru pleadingly, the fear clear in his eyes.

"Please, don't tell any one," he said, wringing his hands to together and seemingly becoming a smaller person. "I'll do anything if you don't tell," he added when Hikaru didn't immediately answer his plead.

Fear gripped Hikaru, and a good bit of revulsion; he'd put this fear in the guy, with his bold move. _That was not what I meant! _he thought. Hastily Hikaru dashed about in his head for the right words to turn the situation around.

"I will not tell a soul, if that is what you want, but," he paused to gather his thoughts, "but I don't understand why wouldn't want people to see; those elements you did last night were beautiful!"

Hikaru had tried to put his sincere feeling in the words but it appeared not to have hit the mark because Fujiwara turned his face down and away, studying his hands as he said, "So people can gawk and laugh at how the cripple tries to measure up and fails? I can only do doubles; there is no pro skater who's going to be impressed with that."

"It's amazing that you can even do doubles," Hikaru said. "It must be a thousand times harder the way you have to do them and you make it look so graceful."

"Oh, that's even better, 'come watch the bear waltz; it's not that he does it well, but that he does at all'." Fujiwara scoffed, wringing his hands even tighter and turning his upper body away from Hikaru, effectively shutting the boy out.

Hikaru couldn't help but see red at the sarcastic remark; didn't Fujiwara know how beautiful his technique was, regardless of jump rotations? Hikaru gripped the mans shoulder, forced him back around a told him exactly that.

"I've done my research this morning and I found an old practice tape of yours. You are the man that that little boy would have become within figure skating, regardless of your accident. You are THE BEST skater I have ever seen and I would love for everybody to see that too but," here Hikaru started talking faster because he could see the anger in Fujiwara's eyes was changing back to fear, "you don't want people to know about you and I will respect that. Even if I don't understand it."

Hikaru took a moment to gather his thoughts and his breath; confrontations sure were hard work. He kept his eyes on Fujiwara's face, seeing a whole parade of emotions march across it. After a long moment puzzlement seemed to win out and Fujiwara leaned forward and asked his tone serious, "Then what is it you want from me?"

"I want," Hikaru started, "to be able to spin like that. I want you to teach me how to spin like that and jump like that too." Hikaru's heart was thumping in his throat_. Please say 'yes'_, he pleaded in his head.

Fujiwara now looked perplexed, and if so much wasn't riding on the man's response, Hikaru would have been very entertained by the look. As it was, the thumping of his heart only got louder by each second it took for the man to answer.

"But, but, but, I-I am no teacher...?" Fujiwara said, making it sound like it was question, not a statement, slowly shaking his head.

"You are now," Hikaru stated.

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TBC

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Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4.**

Of course it wasn't that easy, but over the next few days, Hikaru tried to make clear to the man he wasn't going to give up on his wish. The big problem wasn't so much that Fujiwara wouldn't teach him, but more a question of when was he supposed to do it; neither Hikaru nor Fujiwara had much free time.

Which neatly brought them to the subject of how Fujiwara was training at all - there was no way the man could have performed like that if you didn't seriously train every day. Fujiwara proved to be very reluctant to let Hikaru in on his secrets but in the end there really wasn't much choice.

Hikaru was shown Fujiwara's first secret that same day he'd asked him to teach. "Taking ballet class is fundamental," Fujiwara had said and he had taken Hikaru into to the bowels of the TIP building to where all the service areas were, laundry room and the like. Next to the laundry room was a large linen closet, a small windowless room really Fujiwara took him to inside. He closed the door behind them and put a laundry cart in front of the door so there would be a delay in opening it if someone tried. The room itself was lined with shelves all filled with bedding and towels of the same type Hikaru had upstairs in his room. The ceiling was low and the was a criss-cross of wires, pipes and square ventilation shafts running along it; it was quite a messy sight.

"When I open this ventilator valve," Fujiwara walked to the right hand farthest corner of the space, retrieved a pole with a hook on the end, and hooked it to a metal eye in the bottom side of the ventilator. "I can hear the ballet class in progress upstairs," he said and pulled the flat plate valve down. Piano music drifted down, accompanied by the ballet master, probably Ogata, tapping his cane to the beat. Just as Hikaru was going to comment on that guess, Fujiwara brought his finger to his lips. For a moment Hikaru was puzzled but then it dawned on him; if they could hear the music down here, it was likely the people upstairs could here noises from down here. Hikaru quickly put his hand over his mouth to prevent any sound accident. Fujiwara smiled as he closed up the plate valve again.

"So, basically you're taking class with us every day," Hikaru whispered.

Fujiwara nodded and then turned around and put his right hand on a horizontal bar that innocuously stuck out from the selves, at just the right height to be used as a ballet _barre_. He did a quick plié to show the _barre_ off. "Guess it pays to be the janitor," Hikaru said softly. And Fujiwara was smiling again when he turned back to Hikaru.

"We can meet here for off ice training," Fujiwara said. "That is if you still want me to teach you," he added hesitantly.

Hikaru nodded, deep in thought. "Good idea, the question really is when," he said. "And I still want you to," he added automatically as he had down some ten times now; he was not letting this opportunity slip away from him.

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They settled on training off ice in the linen room after school and before Fujiwara's 4th round of Zamboni work of the day, and training on ice at 5 o'clock in the morning, every day. Things like rest and sleep would have to come from having very early nights from now on. Hikaru really wasn't looking forward to that part, really really not.

The schedule was grueling, but over the course of the next two months Hikaru felt he was making progress. Sub-coach Kawai complimented him on his better posture and stance and even Coach Morishita seemed to have less to yell about.

Taking lessons from Fujiwara was so very different from Hikaru's previous coaches. For one thing, Fujiwara would be on the ice with him, skating next to him and even making Hikaru copy his movements of a jump or a step sequence exactly so he could feel the actual movements for himself. In a way their lessons were much more intimate, more in sync, then Hikaru had ever experienced. Oddly it actually made him _feel_ elegant, something he'd never experienced before.

"When you feel yourself being truly beautiful, you will be actually beautiful too," Fujiwara said early on when he was instructing about perfecting positions in a spins. 'Beautiful' was a concept Hikaru had never applied to himself before and it took a while before he even dared to show something as girly as the word implied.

But then Sai - Fujiwara had also said early on to call him by his first name - had made Hikaru practice ballet moves in front of an old chipped floor length mirror that stood in the boiler room of the TIP's basement. By repeating Hikaru's moves exactly, he showed Hikaru what his ballet looked like and then what it could look like and it was as if a light bulb went on in a part of Hikaru's brain that had always been in the dark; he finally got why figure skaters had to take ballet class. It was not just the physical training, though that was very important, no, it was by doing ballet that you could create the most elegant movements that fit your body and by taking class every day, you could train your body to move in that elegant way without having to keep telling your body to do so. That way you had time while skating to count points and keep time with the music and stuff like that, those things had all been keeping Hikaru back while he was a Junior.

It was at that point Hikaru got serious about ballet class. From then on he stopped just going through the motions and just doing enough so Ogata wouldn't have a reason to come over and jab him with his cane. Now he asked Sai for pointers for the day beforehand and he tried to put those into practice, reporting his experiences to Sai later the same day. Ballet was still a chore but knowing Sai was working out just as hard in the basement right under the studio did make it easier to bear somehow; now Hikaru had some one who was wholly on his side and that he didn't have to share with anybody else.

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For three months they went undetected, but of course that couldn't last. It was one July morning at 5:53am that Coach Morishita caught them at practice. The coach was always good at yelling, even when he wasn't even angry, but now he was very angry and Hikaru found himself the focus of a tirade, the likes of which he'd never heard before. Words like 'ingrate', 'back stabber' and 'cheater' came up and Hikaru just stood there with his mouth in a thin line, only feeling moderately guilty; he felt he'd gotten the best teacher in the world to teach him and it wasn't his fault if that teacher wasn't Morishita, like the man seemed to think it ought to have been.

Hikaru was resolved to keep silent - responding to Coach's yelling never did any good anyway - but then the man changed his aim and moved on to verbally take Sai apart. Sai, who had been standing silently on the ice, his head down and his arms wrapped around him; a picture of defeat. From the very first word aimed at the crippled skater, Hikaru could see Sai become smaller and smaller; it made Hikaru's heart ache for the man and his gorge rise at Morishita.

Hikaru didn't let the man get out more that three lines of abuse before he stepped between him and Sai and let the coach have a piece of his mind, very loudly. To which Morishita responded, equally loudly.

This went on for a bit until there was a deafening BANG and both fell silent. The sound had come from the entrance to the rink hall from the changing rooms. Just like everybody there, Hikaru turned his head towards the noise and saw Director Kuwabara stand there with what appeared to be a starter pistol in his hand, now hanging down, with a tendril of smoke still coming out of the barrel. Just behind him stood Touya Sr. and Ogata, both looking serious and up on the tier near the railing, Hikaru could see Waya, Isumi, Akari and Touya Jr. stand in their PJ's looking down on them, shock clearly visible on their faces.

"Oh crap," Hikaru said to no one in particular.

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Touya Sr. closed the door of the Director's office behind the selected company that had been commanded to come up there after that morning's 'unfortunate incident'.

Hikaru sat in the chair Kuwabara had pointed him to. He'd only been given time to put his protectors on and grab his bag and with his skates still on, the chair was too low for him so he tried to tuck his legs away a bit in the now very cramped office. Sai was pointed to a chair next to his and tried to do something similar with his legs, for he too still had his skates on. Both their bags had been put on top of the open files that were littering the top of the filing cabinet, and with the two visitor chairs taken already, Ogata stood leaning against the large bookcase and Touya leaned against the side of the large oak desk Kuwabara sat behind in his creaky leather director's chair. And it was dead silent in the room.

"Start talking," Ogata commanded after a full minute of silence. Hikaru experienced an extreme impulse to start yelling again, but just as he was successful persuading himself that this was a scene that would not get better with more emo, he felt a shy hand on his arm and he looked over to Sai and caught his calm but sad gaze_. Give it up, it's all over anyway_, that gaze seemed to say. And Hikaru so much wanted to argue that point but in his heart he knew that they couldn't go back from here.

So instead of screaming at the world's injustice he turned his face back to Ogata and said, "All I want is to learn to skate like Sai, I mean, like Fujiwara."

Another silence fell, one in which Touya, Ogata and Kuwabara exchanged glances and Fujiwara's head kept hanging lower and lower. Hikaru looked at all of them in turn, before adding, "and another thing, why isn't Fujiwara in the program? He can do spins so well, even Touya-kun can't do better! He'd get full marks on style and execution every time and..." That shy hand was back on his arm and he stopped talking so he could look over at Fujiwara, who still had his head down. "And," he continued more slowly now talking at Fujiwara directly,"I've learned so much, in the short time we've had together." Here he stopped, hoping Fujiwara would look at him again, but the head stayed stubbornly down.

Hikaru then looked over at the others, all their brows were creased in thought. Ogata had his arms crossed with a finger tapping at his lower lip in thought. Then he dropped his arm and asked, "Fujiwara-san, what have you to say?"

Hikaru immediately looked back to Fujiwara to see if he'd say something. There was a long silence but just as Hikaru started to despair, Fujiwara spoke.

"I just wanted to skate," was what he said, not lifting his head. Then he sighed, pulling in his arms even closer around his body. "I tried to move on, I tried! But staying in Kyoto, I could never get away from the memories, so I moved here and I tried to move on. But the ice keeps calling and then one day I walked in here and nobody recognized me; they were all too young and for those who had known me when my folks were still alive I'd changed so much, they didn't recognize me either. And,"

"I recognized you at once." It was Touya who had spoken and Fujiwara's head shot up, reveling huge eyes in his open face. Hikaru was looking from one to the other. _There is more going on here?_ he thought.

"I understood your desire to be close to what was once your life and your family's life, and so I did nothing to step in your way, it was not my place to," Touya said in his usual decisive tone. "But," here his tone became thoughtful and his face softened, "I don't understand how it's possible that you're actually skating again."

Hikaru frowned at the words, doesn't he know about the... But Fujiwara was faster than Hikaru's thought and he pulled his left leg from under the chair, using his left hand to pull up his trouser leg as well. The steel bar that connected the skate-boot to the cupped stump glittered in the stark over head lights.

Hikaru saw Ogata turn pale, and, after taking of his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose for a moment, the man excused himself from the office, looking decidedly green around the gills.

Hikaru found he couldn't feel sorry for the guy; he only had to see it, not live with it after all. Hikaru dismissed Ogata from his mind and focussed back on the people still present.

"I'm so sorry," Touya said. "I really didn't know. And you other leg?" he asked.

"Both the same," Fujiwara said curtly, looking away from any of the people in the room. _Well, at least he's not looking scared anymore; just sad. _And Hikaru's heart ached for him and he put a hand on Fujiwara's arm in support.

It was the director who broke the silence this time. "Hrumph, Time for tea, I think." And picked up his phone and ordered tea for four from his secretary Ichikawa.

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**TBC**

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_OK, bear with me on the start of the next chapter; it's a bit unusual. It's just the fist bit, after that it's more normal. _

_I considered axing it but it does do what I wanted, when I wanted it, so that's a good reason to keep it. Even if the format's a bit weird, don't skip it or you lose some plot points, and stuff will make less sense. _

_And the next chapter may be a little later than expected; I'm still polishing it. Sorry in advance. _

_But don't worry, this story will be written to the end. _

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	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5.**

J: "Hello and welcome back to Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in China! I'm Jeremy Broadine,"

T: "And I'm Thomas Larsky,"

J: "And we welcome you back to the last quarter of the Exhibition Gala of the 2015 World Figure Skating Championships, on Radio Canada!"

T: "We have still a few moments before the spectacle continues; I can still see the Zamboni cleaning ice. In the last hour we've seen the bronze and silver medalists blow off some steam, in some very nicely choreographed new numbers but also, some have simply repeated parts of their routine from the short or the free program from this week's competition."

J: "Yes, this is a common thing especially if the medalist has never made it to an exhibition gala before. Akira Touya showed us an almost exact copy of his short program, just before the break. A short program that put him firmly in first position, BTW. But unfortunately his countryman out did himself in his free program and relegated Touya to the Silver position. Something that is not to be sneezed at either, isn't it Tom?"

T: "Not at all! Even getting as far a Silver in the World's is a major feat. The only thing higher than Gold here, is an Olympic medal, and it's a long three year wait before those are on offer again!"

J: "Ah, the Zamboni has left the ice and the spot lights have come back on."

_Tannoy: "Please welcome onto the ice, the Gold Medal winner: Hikaru Shindou!"_

J: "Shindou really was the ultimate surprise at this Championship; he's only just done enough senior events to quality here at all and then he was always in the top 5 at best. Rumors have it that he lost time because he lost his coach back in July and then he was training with some friends, which is not ideal."

T: "Or that he was holding back, which is my take on it; he 'saved' himself for this event. When I was still skating, I would consider doing that, Jerry."

J: "Be that as it may, Tom, at the end of the short program, Touya was a full point ahead and Shindou looked all but played out. And then, remarkably, Shindou came back in the free program with those beautiful spins AND he landed that quad-Toe-trip-Toe-trip-Loop combination perfectly, taking perfect performance marks on it too. THAT's what won him the Gold; every move was executed to perfection and graceful besides."

T: "Well, however he did it, it worked. Especially those spins have been the talk of this championship. And..."

J: "Tom, hold on, something's happening..."

T: "Looks like Shindou is leaving the ice before even starting his skate, even though the music has started..."

J: "No, he's stopped at the boarding. He seems to be talking to his skating buddy, Sai Fujiyama, I believe..."

T: "Are they arguing?"

J: "I can't tell... No, Shindou is opening the boarding door. Is he leaving?"

T: "... What? Looks more like he's pulling his buddy onto the ice. And the man is already wearing skates, so this can't have been totally unplanned..."

J: "Pff, unplanned enough; he's stepped out on to the ice with his skate protectors still on."

T: "And Fujiwara looks shocked enough. Wonder why he wore his skates then?"

J: "... Look, Shindou is pulling him to the middle of the rink. Oh lordy, he's taking bows like he would before any skate; he's meaning Fujiyama to skate with him."

T: "Jerry, I think you're right; Shindou is signaling for the music to be reset and he's motioning to his buddy, I think, to take position."

J: "I can see Fujiyama is hesitant, but he's taking up a pose just left off center rink."

T: "And Shindou is taking the same pose just right off center. No, the pose is mirrored."

J: "Here comes the music. It should be _Bring me to Life_ by _Evervessance_, yes it is _Bring me to Life! _That's the music Shindou skated on to Gold in the free program!"

T: "This is amazing; both skaters are mirroring each other, and repeating Shindou's winning routine. And, oh my god, look that Fujiwara - it's Fujiwara not _Fujiyama _BTW - in that first spin! I thought Shindou was good, but this guy tops him in spades! Why is this guy not competing?!"

J: "Shindou is doing exactly the same spin from his free program, and Fujiwara is copying, I think... Or possibly Shindou is copying his buddy... I really can't tell now."

T: "The spin is nearly done. After it Shindou did his quad-trip-trip combination, I wonder if he'll do it here. Outside of the competition skaters usually don't risk doing the really hard jumps, because there's always a risk of falling and injury."

J: "We're about to find out, I guess, cause they look to be preparing for a jump... And there they go... It's a double Lutz... double Toeloop... and another double Toeloop."

T: "And that settles it; Shindou is following Fujiwara, I could see him take his cues from his friend."

J: "But all doubles, that Lutz could easily have been tripple, so why?"

T: "I have no idea. Other than Shindou, or his buddy more likely, is playing it super safe."

J: "Next up in the program was a triple Axle followed by a step sequence diagonally across the ice. Let's see what happens there..."

T: "... Double Axle, perfectly executed by both of them, and completely in sync. It's just beautiful to watch."

J: "And it does look like they are doing Shindou's program, so I'm going to enjoy watching it."

T: "As will I."

...

T: "Double Flip... double Lutz. Nicely landed."

...

T: "Another beautiful spin... Oh, change of plan... No, Shindou has stopped his spin and is skating off to the boarding. He's pointing at Fujiwara who is still spinning. Shindou is leaning back against the boarding like he's just another member of the audience. He's pointing again at his buddy. Oh my god, that's a Biehlmann! Fujiwara is spinning a Biehlmann, and over his left side too!"

...

T: "Fujiwara is finishing off with a nicely tight spin here, very fast rotation and, oh, he's realized Shindou isn't copying him anymore. He's skating over to his friend now, not bothering to skate to the music, and Shindou his skating up to meet him in the middle of the rink. They seem to be talking... No, they are skating again, moving out of the center but they're coming back together already... Oh! They're going to do a pair spin, beautiful!

...

"Fujiwara is laying back into the spin with one leg out and Shindou is crouching down with also one leg out and holding on to Fujiwara's supporting leg. Wow, they're spinning quite fast for such a spread out position..."

...

T: "Oh my god, Jerry, can you see that?"  
J: "What?"

T: "Shindou has pulled up Fujiwara's pants leg and OH MY GOD, that's a peg! It's a prosthesis of some sort! This guy is spinning on a prosthetic leg!"  
J: "WHAT? Is that even possible?!"

T: "Well, we're seeing it, so it's possible, but, oh my god, I can't believe it!  
Oh, change of position, and of support leg. Shindou is still in the lower position and, oh my god, he's pulling up the other pants leg! No! Just no! I can't believe Fujiwara has two gamy legs!

Uh! I guess I'm going to have to believe it: two artificial limbs, unbelievable!"

J: "Tom, waz going on? I don't understand any of this! They've stopped spinning and seem to be talking again."

T: "Sorry Jerry, you're not a skater like me, there is no way you can understand how amazing what we just saw is. This Fujiwara, that he can skate at such a level with those legs, I mean, without legs, I mean, uh, it's just so amazing that I just can't..."

J: "Sorry to interrupt, Tom, I was just handed a bulletin, it has the official ISU letter head. It says:  
_It is time for my friend and teacher Fujiwara Sai to step out of the shadow and into the light where he belongs.  
As you've just seen he is a great skater with a small disability. That disability should not stop him from taking part in competition. _

_WHY IS THERE NOT FIGURE SKATING AT THE PARALYMPICS?"_

T: "He's right, you know, there is no figure skating at the paralympics. No speed skating either. Maybe that should change."

J: "Look, both Fujiwara and Shindou took their top shirts off. There's something written on their T-shirts:  
_Figure Skating  
at the  
Paralympics  
Korea 2018"_

#5#5#5#

Hikaru looked over at Sai as the sat on the chairs in the dressing room, still catching their breaths from gala skate. Sai was smiling at him as he fiddled with his prosthesis' straps. Hikaru let his head fall back against the wall, giving him a minute to regroup before tackling his own skates.

This night had been terrific. The whole week had been awesome - he got a gold medal! - but tonight, pulling one over on the audience - with the permission of ISU - had been the best.

It had really been the craziest nine months since Hikaru and Sai had gotten caught that early morning. Hikaru remembered sitting in that office, both mad as hell and scared to death at the same time. _'I want Sai to be my coach!'_ Hikaru remembered yelling.

#5#5#5#

"I want Sai to be my coach!" The sound hung in the air as Hikaru leaned forward in his chair first looking wide-eyed at Touya Sr. and then over at Director Kuwabara. Behind him he could hear Sai inhale sharply and whisper "Hikaru!" under his breath in just that tone that the man used whenever Hikaru had suggested a stupid way to jump or spin. But Hikaru wasn't backing down on this and he kept looking both older man straight in the eyes in turn.

Hikaru could see thought lines on Kuwabara's brow and Touya was tapping a finger against his lips, also in deep thought. Then, after an icily long time, Touya dropped his hand back to his chest were it joined the one that was already crossed over the mans chest and he said, "no."

Hikaru's heart now thumped in his throat with shock and anger and he was about to get up and really let the man have it when Touya continued. "If Fujiwara becomes a coach, he will have effectively disqualified himself as a contestant. Before that happens, I want to see what he can do."

Hikaru's jaw dropped; what did Touya seeing have to do with anything? Why was Touya seemingly the person in charge all of a sudden, Hikaru thought next as the Director said, "well, let's go see then."

'Seeing' didn't immediately happen; it couldn't because while the full timers were just starting ballet class right then - now without Hikaru of course and without Sai in the basement - the ice was being used for the before school classes, for those who went to school elsewhere. So Hikaru was told to get to ballet class and to go to his school lesson right after, no arguments, and show up for his on-ice lesson without fail.

Hikaru was not too keen to leave Sai alone with the two older men, but he didn't have a choice. And as he watched the office door close on his would-be coach, it was only partly the lack of breakfast that was making his stomach twist up in knots.

#5#5#5#

After Biology class, where Hikaru learned exactly nothing because he just couldn't concentrate, he hurried to his lesson, arriving just as the Zamboni finished its first lap around the rink. Hikaru's heart almost floated out of his chest when he saw Sai sitting in the big machine's driver's seat; _thank god, he hasn't been fired! _

Hikaru quickly got his skates on and then he looked around for Morishita, but he wasn't there. In fact, apart from Sai, Touya Sr., the Director and Hikaru himself, the place was deserted. Usually there were some people sitting in the spectator seat. Some fans or some parents of skaters or some other wannabees. Rivals would usually not come and look, it was considered impolite. But it was not unusual for choreographers and coaches to observe the competition, if they had time. And sometimes a 'minion' could be seen feverishly taking notes, since photography and videoing were forbidden except on special 'open' days. But now there was just nobody.

The noise of the Zamboni stopped, leaving an almost deafening silence, after which Hikaru heard himself being called over by the Director. He removed his protectors and skated over to the man, who stood next to Touya Sr.

"Go help Fujiwara get ready to skate," the man said in a conversational volume when Hikaru had gotten close enough.

"He needs no help from me to get ready," Hikaru said, but then added, "okay, I'll go," when he saw stern looks appear on both men's faces. Hikaru skated to the doorway on the side of the rink where the Zamboni stood outside of it, coming up to the padded boarding closest to where he saw Sai's holdall sit on the padding. He stopped and peered over. There Sai , sitting on a chair, was bending over, adjusting the straps on his left leg.

"How are you doing?" Hikaru asked, trying not to show how nervous he was. The fact that Sai jerked at the sound of Hikaru's voice was answer enough; Sai was just as nervous as Hikaru and probably a whole lot more besides.

"It'll be fine," Hikaru tried his best at reassurance. Sai had finished by then and he got to his feet and opened the barrier, stepping on to the ice. He headed straight to the other side, with Hikaru following behind.

"I'm ready, Touya-sensei, Kuwabara-san," Sai announced after he'd scraped his skate over the ice to stop his momentum. Kuwabara waved to Hikaru to move a aside and then told Sai to start. Hikaru leaned back against the padded border, wondering what had been discussed in his absence and keeping half his attention on his would-be coach and half on the serious looking older men. Well, that was until Sai started skating; Hikaru found his eyes drawn by the movement, much like he always was drawn to action. And boy was it great action!

#5#5#5#

Sai, it seemed, pulled all the stops out. Hikaru had seen him do many spins and jumps in their time together, but mostly it would be a case of Sai showing an element and Hikaru then trying to copy it so he could make it his own. Basically there had never been a moment for Sai to shine, since that very first night. Quite unintentionally so, but still.

Now Sai would show a jump that was followed by a spin, the one flowing into the other like a natural continuation. From the spin he'd take it to a short step sequence and then to the prep for an Axle jump; a double. Sai and Hikaru in their training had been working their way up to these type of transitions between elements, but there had been more pressing basic work to do first, mostly in Hikaru's spins and improve the grace of the jumps. Now Hikaru looked on at what he hoped his own style would be like; like a continuous story unfolding in spins and jumps and transitional elements. And all executed just like that: graceful, natural an so easy looking. But oh, so hard to achieve.

Sai performed a faster sequence with a double-Lutz-double-Toe combination in the middle and than a double Axle at the end. Then he did a step sequence, not very fast because that was really where Sai's limit lay with that element. Then a double Flip and straight on in a series of incredibly complicated and tightly executed spins. Hikaru was pretty sure he'd be able to come up to Sai's level with the jumps and he'd surpass him with the steps, but those spins, he wasn't so very sure he'd ever be able to do that, no matter how much Sai assured him he would.

The whole skate had been executed without any sound other than the skates scraping across the ice. And it ended when the Director called out for Sai to stop after Sai had finished a very long combination spin. Kuwabara commanded everybody back to the office, leaving Sai and Hikaru to change out of their stakes as the other two went ahead.

When Sai and Hikaru arrived at the office, there was tea and cookies laid out already and Hikaru took the Director's invitation to dig right in; he was really hungry and cold now.

Hikaru was stuffing his second cookie in his face when Touya Sr. spoke. "No triples," he said.

"Yes," was all Sai said and Hikaru tried to chew more silently as he felt this conversation could be an important one. He sipped some eat to try and quell his noise.

"The steps are slow," Touya said.

"Yes," Sai said, his head starting to hang a bit.

"But the spins are solid," he continued.

"Thank you," came the subdued reply.

"Harrumph," Touya said after a while.

"Well, what do you think, is it possible?" the Director piped up, making Hikaru look over at him in surprise.

"Is what possible?" Hikaru asked, realizing too late that his mouth was not quite empty. "Sorry," he added putting his hand in front of his mouth.

Touya, who had taken the same position in the office he had had earlier that day, now hooked a knee over the side of the desk, almost sitting on the edge of it. It made him look a little more relaxed and Hikaru could only view that as a good sign.

"I've been phoning around all morning; the Japanese Skating Federation, the Japanese Olympic Comity, the Japanese Paralympic Comity, the MEXT, and even the Prime Minister," Touya said and despite the not-emptiness of his mouth, Hikaru found it drop open completely. Those were some really impressive people, even Hikaru had heard of all of them, the MEXT being the Ministry of Education and Sports, among other things.

"Ah, how was Abe-san?" Kuwabara asked like it was the most normal thing in the world to be phoning the Prime Minister.

"He is well, and so is his wife," Touya reported.

"Ah, that's good," Kuwabara said. "Please continue," he waved Touya on.

Touya shifted his gaze over to Sai, who still had his head down. "The bottom line is that we want more Gold medals for Japan. International, Olympic, even Paralympic, it's all good."

_Paralympic?_ Hikaru thought_. Is there Paralympic figure skating? _It was something Hikaru had not considered, and it looked like Sai had not either because he was now looking up a Touya with fully the widest eyes Hikaru had ever seen on the man.

"Paralympic?" Sai repeated Hikaru's thought.

"Yes. Of course there is no figure skating at the Paralympics," the man said. "Yet," he added after a look of total shock had appeared on Sai's face at that first bit.

"Not yet," Kuwabara confirmed. "But that doesn't mean there won't be. And if we work at it, it could be soon."

Hikaru looked from one to the other, back to Sai and then around again. "So what does that mean?"

"It means," Kuwabara said, "that you have gained a training buddy. And," he retrieved a letter off his cluttered desk and handed it to Hikaru, "that you have lost two coaches in one day."

Hikaru took the letter and unfolded it. Unsurprisingly it was a letter of termination of his and Morishita's coach/pupil contract. Hikaru winced at the penalty fee listed in it. But as he folded the paper he realized that this money was actually well spent; his new friend would get his chance and that was worth the sacrifice of the money and loss of Sai as his official coach.

#5#5#5#

**TBC**

#5#5#5#  
Author note:  
My reason for writing this story, other than playing with Sai and Hikaru one more time, was my discovery that there was indeed no figure skating at the 2014 Winter Paralympics. In fact, apart from ice hockey, there are no ice sports at the Paralympics; it's all snow sports.

**Edit:**  
Second author note: Kohane-nyan pointed out a mistake in jump types. I've fixed it. And than the bad news: I'm sick with a cold so the next chapter will be a little late.

Third author note: **Thanks everybody for the reviews! Keep 'm coming!**

To mal: I jumped forward in time a bit, but that doesn't mean I won't write what happened in between, so be patient.  
As for the Kouyo-Sai rivalry; Sai can either skate in competition or be a coach, the ISU rules forbid being both. If he were a coach he'd be a rival to Kouyo. But as a disabled skater Sai is no-one's rival, at least no-one at the TIP.  
As for Hikaru vs. Akira, yes, that will happen. But it can't happen like it does in the comic; Go is a two player game, one beats the other, and figure skating is a judged sport, so more of a one player game, if you know what I mean. So the way they compete is going to totally different than in Go.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6.**

And so the TIP gained another 'inmate'. Fujiwara Sai was officially added as an amateur skater, with the approval of the ISU, in the as yet barely-existent class of Paralympic Figure Skating. His sub class stayed blank for now, while the higher-ups decided what would be sensible categories within the new sport, but Hikaru was thinking it was going to have to be Men's Singles, nothing else made sense to him. Sai seemed uninterested in the details, all he cared about was getting a chance to skate for real again.

The practical matters of training and, in Sai's case, sponsoring, took their time. While Hikaru went to school, Sai kept working his janitor job, now helped by two apprentices. Hikaru's opinion of the two boys was not high; the both of them together took more time mopping and cleaning than Sai ever had done on his own. But it left Sai free to join Hikaru in his on-ice training, which they now shared. Having to share was simply a question of scheduling the ice; there simply wasn't any more time available and Kuwabara-san had forbidden them using the ice before 6 am. Again this was not a unreasonable rule; the venue insurance would not cover any damage to the rink or the skaters between 12 pm and 6 am. So that was out, much to Sai and Hikaru's disappointment. But secretly Hikaru was not too upset; at least he could now get enough sleep at night.

So their day-to-day routine settled down to something manageable. Now that the cat was out of the bag in terms people knowing about Sai and his situation, a lot more people would come watch their joint on-ice practicing sessions. Many people who knew little about figure skating also came. So many, in fact, that the Director had had to ask his janitor to put up a bunch of sings to inform people of the no-photography rule. It turned out that Sai was a very competent sign painter, his_kanji _were very elegant, and the initial objections from some of the other skaters, who were against unsightly signs, stilled pretty quickly.

At first the TIP donated its time and facilities to Sai, but of course that could not continue. At that meeting on that fateful morning Hikaru had been surprised when Coach Touya had insisted that Sai could win Japan some gold, somehow, but now Hikaru was amazed at how serious the man was acting about it. Touya got Sai an excellent sponsor. Mitsu Sharin mostly made automotive farm equipment but they also had a small department that made medical equipment and made-to-order items. Under this heading, Touya got them to sponsor an ultra modern set of prosthetic skates that looked like they had come straight from outer-space. Cool!

Sai getting sponsoring was great but Hikaru thought that getting ice-time together was better. They decided to concentrate of Hikaru's training first since he was now a eligible for the senior championships and he had a Touya to beat after all.

With all that had been going on, Hikaru had not paid much attention to his rival. But that changed when one morning, only a week or so after Sai's secret had come out, Touya showed up at Hikaru and Sai's on-ice hour.

Hikaru had stopped skating immediately; it was not done to come and look at your rival's training, and Hikaru wasn't about to give his rival a free show. While Sai continued practicing his jump technique, Hikaru skated over to where Touya stood behind the boarding. When he arrived he theatrically put his arms over his chest and gave the bob-haired boy a 'whatchya doin' here, bubba,' look. Touya coolly inclined his head towards Sai out on the ice, as if to say, 'I came for him.' Yeah, Hikaru could well understand the ice-prince's curiosity, but, as possessive as that sounded, in Hikaru's opinion, Sai was Hikaru's and Hikaru tried to convey with a look and a shrug that Touya shouldn't hang about for too long. At first Hikaru thought Touya hadn't gotten the message, hadn't even seen the look as the boy was looking directly at Sai only, his eyes following him around the ice. But then, after a long five minutes, Touya nodded, turned and left, without acknowledging Hikaru at all. With a '_good riddance,' _Hikaru watched Touya disappear through the door in the direction of the classrooms, before getting back to the training himself. It wasn't until much later that Hikaru got around to wondering what the ice-prince was thinking about all the help his father was giving Sai, and thereby helping Hikaru, however indirectly.

#5#5#5#

All summer, Hikaru took only one weekend out to visit his parents in Nagano. It was a trip he did every year and it was really the most he saw of his dad all year. As usual, after the initial, "welcome home, son," they had nothing much to talk about and Hikaru spent the rest of the visit talking to his mom and to Akari, the girl next door his mom would always invite. Akari was nice and Hikaru got on well with her. And while she wasn't a great skating fan, she did keep up with all his competition stats and the gossip in Skate weekly. It was from her Hikaru heard all the juicy tit-bits from the skating world, that passed him by throughout the year.

This year Akari was full of curiosity towards Hikaru's new 'training buddy' and Hikaru didn't mind indulging her at length; he enjoyed talking about Sai. His mom, on the other hand, had news of her own; she was pregnant and the child was expected in March. It would put the kabash on her plans of coming to the World Championships, provided Hikaru would qualify there. She was moderately disappointed only and Hikaru didn't know what to think, either of the pregnancy or her lack of real disappointment.

In the end he went home still stunned by the news, and it wasn't until he'd talked to Sai that the weird feeling left him. But Sai was right when he told Hikaru quite sternly that being a skater and aiming for a medal is something you can only for yourself not for anybody else, not even for your mother's approval. _You can do it for some one else for a while but that can't last. _After thinking about it Hikaru agreed; his mother's dreams may have shifted away from him but now he wanted Gold for himself and for Japan, but mainly for himself. And to make sure Touya got Silver. _Suits him better too; icy cold silver._

#5#5#5#

The fall was spent training, going to school and going to championships and Grand Prix competitions. Hikaru did well, gathering points everywhere and scoring as high as 3rd place in the Grand Prix final. He had to miss out on the Five Continents because of a flu, and Touya took the Gold there, much to Hikaru's annoyance.

But then the World's came round and Hikaru performed the best skates of his career, winning him the Gold. It had been amazing.

Even more amazing was the response he and Sai got from that Gala skate. Suddenly everybody wanted to know about Sai and Hikaru. And not just because Hikaru had got that gold either, in fact that little detail seemed to disappear in the face of Sai's handicap and how he overcame it.

Hikaru caught himself being jealous a few times. But he couldn't stay jealous for long because Sai always made sure he included Hikaru in interviews and all the other attention. It was really quite sweet and very much appreciated. And Hikaru did realize that this synergy that they had going couldn't last forever but he fully intended to enjoy it while it did.

#5#5#5#

Just at the start of May something noteworthy happened at the usually dull TIP. A girl arrived, maybe 13 years old, carrying an overstuffed overnight bag, saying she wanted to skate. This in itself was not unusual at all; every month or so, such girls, and boys, showed up, hoping to join the TIP as a student. Director Kuwabara would always give such kids an audition and sometimes he'd take the child on. But those kids had two things this girl didn't; they'd have a pair of (old beat-up) skates hanging from their luggage and they'd have two arms.

It was at the point where the girl, after dropping the bag and taking off her coat, and everybody had seen the second absence, that Waya, in his usual lack of tact, had called out, "FUJIWARA, IT'S FOR YOU!"

Sato Mieko, as it turned out, lacked another thing; she could barely skate. But on the other hand, she'd studied ballet from the age of two, after her run in with a plow machine in her native village, in Hiroshima province. She carried a glowing letter from her teacher to prove it, plus she had enough tuition money for a full year for the TIP. And lastly, she brought an iron determination with her that impressed everybody there.

Again it was Coach Touya, with Kuwabara's permission, who insisted they take her on as a contestant for the Paralympics, if and when it should take place. And the Sai was to coach her informally. At this point Hikaru's jealousy flared up again and, later that day in private, he had his first row with Sai. The first and the last, actually, because about halfway through Hikaru realized that Sai was not arguing back, hadn't even defended himself at all, just looked upset and so so sad, that Hikaru just couldn't continue. And he promised himself never to do that ever again.

Under Sai's tutelage, Mieko learned to skate competently within one week, hardly even hampered by the lack of a right arm, and she learned it well enough for a 90 second exhibition skate within three months. Hikaru could tell by her performance in ballet class that her ballet rivaled that of the other, more able bodied girls. It was going to be interesting to see where this was going to lead.

#5#5#5#

Shindou Hikaru, 17 years old Olympic Gold Medal winning skater, twice over, who still hated getting up at ARG-o'clock for ballet class, and still loved the energy bars his friend and unofficial coach sneaked him from time to time, watched in awe as said friend skated a beautiful duet with Sato Mieko, 14 years old.

Next year she's qualify for seniors in the still non-existent division of Paralympic Figure Skating. And there were talks of pairing Sai and Mieko off together as well as having them skate individually. It would be a hypothetical chance at 3 Gold medals instead of just two.

Hikaru hoped the Paralympic comity would hurry up and make it happen for Sai. Hikaru himself wanted a second World title, of course, and he wanted to snatch the Olympic Gold from under Touya's nose, when the time came, but even more he wanted Gold for Sai, any Gold at all.

#5#5#5#

**Epilogue:**

#5#5#5#

"Hikaru!" Hikaru looked up at the unusual whiny tone of his teacher, who was sitting on the small dressing's room only bench while Hikaru was kneeling on the floor, readjusting the legs of the purple leotard costume Sai was wearing for that night's exhibition gala. The darn thing had snapped loose again and Sai was due on the ice in less than five minutes.

"Hmm?" Hikaru asked. He could see his teacher's almost purple eyes were almost bugging out of his face, a face that was very many shades paler than usual.

"I'm scared," Sai said. "What if they don't like me out there? What if they think I'm too old? What if they think me worthy of pity only, and what if that is the only reason they've asked me at all?!"

None of these were new questions, Hikaru had heard them a hundred times before but he also knew the answers; he and Sai between them had found satisfying answers for each of those questions. Yes, for a figure skater Sai was not young. He had been 26 when Hikaru had first met him and now it was three years on, and most skaters at 28 are definitely over the hill. But Sai wasn't 'most skaters', because of his situation he was indeed different and he belonged in a different peer group. And that was why this year's World Figure Skating Championships' host comity had asked Sai to skate at the gala in Boston, to help promote figure skating at the Paralympics. This was a direct result of Hikaru's little stunt the year before at the Worlds Gala in Shanghai. A stunt Hikaru will never regret bullying Sai into, no matter how much flack he got from, well, everybody, until the predominately positive international response had made its way back to Japan; the world had loved it and they loved Sai too.

Since then, Sai had been asked to skate here and there (and on TV too) but not in another Gala, and now he'd have to do it alone first, and with Mieko right after. Hikaru finished up tying the costume down tightly. _That was not going anywhere soon,_ he decided and gently slapped his teacher's knee as he got up.

"You'll be fine," he declared as he rose to his full height. He looked down and extended a hand which Sai used to level himself up onto is skate-clad prosthesis.

"You think so?" Sai asked, the doubt and fear still evident in his voice.

"I know it," Hikaru stated. "And I'll be there to cheer you on. Come on let's go," he added as he started herding Sai out of the cramped room and onwards to the ice rink. He had Sai's Team Japan jacket slung over his own jacked arm, and he hobbled after Sai on his own skates on which he was scheduled to ride an hour or so later. He knew full well that the scene that had just played out would be playing itself out again within the hour, but then in reverse; Hikaru would be nervous and Sai would be calm.

The partnership they had was the most wonderful thing Hikaru had ever known. He knew, in the most fundamental places in his heart, that Sai would stand with him at the 2018 Olympics and he swore to heaven above that he would stand up and cheer Sai at the 2018 Paralympics. And if, for some reason, there was no figure skating at the Paralympics in 2018, Hikaru swore he'd stand next to Sai with the demonstrators demanding figure skating be added!

Hikaru smiled at those thoughts as he took up his place behind the padded boarding, after Sai had been announced over the tannoy and had stepped out onto the ice. Sai skated to the center and took his position. The music started. _How can you see into my eyes..._

#5#5#5#

**The end**

#5#5#5#

Author's note: I'm all tapped out on the main story; from here on they all live long and prosperous lives. I do have some ideas of what happens at the Paralympic Games in 2018. If you want me to write it let me know and I will.

Thanks to all who've reviewed. If you have reviewed yet, please do, I love to hear from you. And if you have already reviewed, I wouldn't mind if you did it again ;)

In the mean time, it's time for this year's World Championships. The competition has already started and I hope to see some of it on TV tomorrow. For those who are in the World's, _gambatte ne_! For those who are at the World's, keep warm and cheer loudly. For those who are watching at home, enjoy!

**Edit:**  
More author notes:  
If I get two more people who ask me to, I will write about the games.

In the mean time, I'm not really happy about the ending so I'm planning to rewrite some of the last chapter and a half. But the planning is quite long term, I'm afraid; it may be well into the summer before I get around to it...

#5#5#5#


End file.
